Nightmare Shark Caught Off Coast of Australia – Has Been Terrifying World for 80 Million Years
Saturday, January 24th, 2015
That nightmarish thing in the photo above isn’t a screen-used graboid prop from Tremors.
Nope.
That’s an actual creature that lives in our oceans…you know…that giant mass of water that you swim in when you vacation?
Caught off the coast of Australia by a fishing trawler, that thing is a six-foot long monster known as a frilled shark.
Frilled sharks haven’t evolved in almost 80 million years simply because a nightmare is always going to be a nightmare. On very rare occasions frilled sharks are found close to the surface because they’re dying. “Close to the surface” is around 4,000 feet below the surface.
Simon Boag of the trawling company that caught the creature:
“It does look 80 million years old. It looks prehistoric. It looks like it’s from another time! It has 300 teeth over 25 rows, so once you’re in that mouth, you’re not coming out.”
According to a marine conservation society in California there is a report of a frilled shark from 1880 measuring in at 25 feet.
Next time you go splashing around in the ocean for fun just remember…
These live there.
[NatGeo]
Thank you to everyone (including Brett “Amtrekker” Rounsaville) who visited our Weird Things deliberation chamber today to hash out our first ever Weirdest Thing In The World competition. Arising victorious was the Dumbo Octopus, who captured our imaginations and stole our hearts with his Peep-like demeanor and what looks to be a tiny nubbin for a nose.